Kassouf, Keating Play Bad Guy as WSOP Main Event Airs on ESPN

If you don't get a little buzz in your fingertips and skip in your heartbeat when you hear the first notes of the ESPN WSOP Main Event intro music, you just aren't a poker fan.

OK; you can still be a poker fan. But there's nothing quite like the beginning of the WSOP Main Event music and the throaty stylings of Lon McEachern and Norman Chad to get most poker nostalgia fans humming.

This year's coverage is two weeks in and several fantastic stories (and characters) have emerged including the evil twins of William Kassouf and Alex Keating and the beginnings of the November 9.

Two Days, Five Hours, 2 Villains

The glory days of WSOP Main Event coverage beginning on Day 1 may be over but the ESPN cameras found plenty of action to peer in on on Day 4.

That's where we picked up the action last week with a feature table that included former Main Event champs Greg Raymer and Ryan Reiss alongside chipleader James Obst.

One of Australia's most successful poker pros ever Obst flashed a lot of the skill that got him to that position in the first episode, in particular dusting off a big hand against amateur Tom Thomas.

We also saw the debut of WSOP Bad Guy supreme William Kassouf, who uses non-stop banter at the tables - aka "speech play" - to tilt/keep his opponents off balance.

His table banter ramped up to the next level during episodes 3 and 4 last night when he pushed Stacey Matuson to the brink in one big hand and received a 1-orbit penalty for his efforts.

Over on the feature table the comparably talkative Alex Keating also got under a player or two's skin although for the most part kept things a little lighter.

Also making appearances during the coverage were November Niners Michael Ruane, Gordon Vayo, Cliff Josephy, Kenny Hallaert and Qui Nguyen, who's only appearance so far saw him lose 68% of his stack.

On to Day 6 and Beyond

Expect the storylines of each of the Nov. 9ers to expand as we get closer to Day 7 and beyond.

Tune in every Sunday at 8:30 pm on ESPN in the States until the playdown from 9 to a champion begins on Oct. 30.